Big Little Sister
by astradanvers
Summary: Cat comes home from class to find Alex has come to visit. Something is wrong though and now she's responsible for pulling whatever it is out of Alex. Can she and Kara help? Part of the College Sweethearts and College Sweethearts: General Danvers Editions Serieses


**So I changed this up a little bit in regards to canon and Alex attends MIT instead of Stanford. This way she's closer to Cat and Kara and its easier for her to just show up at their place.**

Cat returns to the apartment she and Kara share off campus one night to find her girlfriend and her girlfriend's sister sprawled across their bed. "I didn't know you were coming to visit," she says to Alex while dropping a kiss to Kara's lips.

"I wasn't," Alex says simply then turns quiet.

Looking to Kara with a raised eyebrow she receives a nod from her lover, meaning that Alex needs her poking and prodding to get to the heart of whatever is bothering her. She changes quickly into her pajamas and then moves towards the bed, "Okay, Danvers," Cat says, settling cross legged on the bed next to Kara's head, smiling when her lover shifts to rest her head in Cat's lap. "Spill."

"There's nothing to spill, Cat," Alex says quietly but she's looking at the wall and even Cat can tell she's crying.

Cat's face softens when she realizes that whatever is going on with the other woman is really doing a number on her, "Alex," she says quietly, reaching out to drop a hand gently on the dark haired woman's shoulder.

"She's married," Alex says, voice far too quiet and Cat sighs, she'd been afraid it'd be about this new and mysterious older woman in Alex's life.

All Kara and Cat had heard in recent phone calls was how the new environmental science professor had swept Alex off her feet, in more ways than one. From what they had learned, the woman was tall, dark and curvy, had a voice like molten lava and could bring badass Alex Danvers to her knees, again in more ways than one. Over the course of their six month love affair Alex had spoken of Professor Inzel more and more.

"She's married," Alex says again, drawing Cat from her musings before she rolls over, curls her arms around Cat's waist and hides her face against the younger woman's stomach. Cat swears at times like these she has two girlfriends, it feels like it at times.

"Have you talked to her?"

"What is there to talk about, Kara? She's been using me to cheat on someone else for six months."

"Alex, from what I've gathered from our phone conversations," Cat starts, "this woman has been basically living with you for four of the six months you've been together, she asked to meet your mother, Kara and I the next time Eliza is in town. I don't condone whatever it is she's doing by being married and being with you but I think there is a reason for it and I think you should hear her out on it."

"Why should I, Cat? After all of this, why?"

"Because you deserve answers if nothing else, Alex," Cat brushes hair away from the other woman's temple, fingers trailing through long dark hair, "you deserve to know why she's still married if she's with you."

Alex nods slightly against Cat's stomach but doesn't move. Kara sighs but clambers over her sister, stretching out behind her and wrapping her arms around the older girl. Cat slides down the bed and tries not to smile when Alex's head falls to her shoulder. When Alex has drifted off to sleep against Cat's shoulder Kara looks over her sister to her girlfriend, "Do you think this woman is going to break her?"

Cat sighs, hand still absently trailing through Alex's hair, "I thinks she's already started, if she finishes the job though she's going to have me to deal with."

Smiling Kara nestles down behind her sister, "Do you even realize half the time that you're younger than her?"

Chuckling Cat reaches across Alex to squeeze Kara's hand, "Does it matter?"

Kara shakes her head, "Not really."

"It's a long drive to MIT tomorrow," she says with a smirk.

Shaking her head Kara presses a kiss to her sister's shoulder, "Big little sister is gonna beat the cheater, cheater up," she whispers and even in her sleep Alex smiles. "She's gonna drive the whole five minutes to get to MIT for it."

"Go to sleep, Supergirl," Cat murmurs, "we've got some things to take care of come morning."

SCSCSCSCSCSCSCSC

The next morning Alex wakes up abandoned in her sister and best friend's bed, shaking her head as she slides from the soft cotton sheets, all Kara's influence she's sure. Padding from the room and out to the living room, she's unsurprised to find Kara cooking at the stove and Cat on the balcony doing her morning yoga. She starts to slide onto one of the bar stools at the counter but notices Kara's sad puppy look and moves to the other instead. She snorts when Kara's look becomes instantly brighter, "Whipped," she mutters into her hand.

"You watch that," Kara says nodding towards where Cat is standing on one leg, the other stretched out behind her and her arms extended towards the balcony rail, "everyday and you'd be whipped too."

"If I watched that everyday," Alex says with a grin, "you'd kill me."

The goofy grin on Kara's face causes Alex to shake her head, "Very true."

Kara studies her sister, "Feeling any better?"

Alex shakes her head, "Not really," she sighs, "I always hold back in relationships, always keep people ten feet away but she found a way in. The only people I've ever been this close to, Kara, are you, Mom and Cat. And it's different, for all the obvious reasons but it still feels like my heart's been ripped out."

Considering her words carefully, Kara finally decides on blunt honesty, "You're in love with her."

"No, no I'm not, Kara, you don't know what you're talking about."

"I know every time you talk about her or think about her your heart rate picks up and your face contorts into this little half smile I've never seen you wear before. I know that you have smiled more since you met her, that you'd already planned on asking her to Christmas at home, that there are three secrets of yours you haven't told her and one of them is mine and I know that you're terrified," Kara says, never looking away from the omelette in the pan in front of her, "that I'm right because if I'm right you will never be able to give her up." Finally she looks up at her sister, "And I hope you never have to because I know that I'm right."

"How did-how do-" Alex stares, "How?" she finally questions simply.

"Because you hold back in relationships," Kara says, "you keep people ten feet away. You mention someone you're seeing once, usually offhandedly and never again, but I've heard everything I could ever want to know about this woman except her first name."

"It's Astra," Alex adds in before falling quiet at Kara's glare.

"You keep wanting to know when Cat and I are driving home, how long we're going to be there and how I think Eliza would feel about another guest for Christmas."

Alex slumps back against the back of the barstool she's sitting in, "I'm in love with her."

Cat steps up beside Kara at the stove, leaning up for a short kiss from the other woman, she glances at Alex, tilts her head, "Kara, did you break Alex?"

"Possibly but not intentionally."

"What am I gonna do?" Alex demands, looking back and forth between the two younger woman.

"You are going to get ready, have breakfast and then the three of us are heading to your apartment."

"She won't-"

"She will," Cat says firmly, "if she's worth anything then she will."

Slowly Alex nods, "Okay," she scrubs her face then mutters once more, "okay."

SCSCSCSCSCSCSCSC

Alex pushes the key into the lock, hesitates then shakes her head, "I can't."

"Then I will," Cat says, turns the key and pushes into the apartment, unsurprised to find an older dark haired woman pacing the length of the combined living room and dining room.

"Who are you?" she demands.

"Better question," Cat starts, anger permeating her words, "is what the hell you think you're doing?"

Kara has entered the apartment behind her girlfriend and stops short, causing Alex to collide with her back, "Aunt Astra?"

The pacing woman's eyes snap from Cat to Kara and tears well up in her eyes, "Little One," she says, voice so full of emotion Kara is transported back to the last time she ever saw her aunt.

Kara moves across the room to her aunt, reaches up and runs her fingers over the strand of silver hair at Astra's temple, reminiscent of the same action from long buried memories of her childhood. "Astra Inzel," she says in a voice somewhere between a laugh and a sob, "tribute to our family."

Alex steps out from behind Cat, "What do you mean aunt?" she questions, snapping Kara's attention away from the woman before her. She studies her sister and her lover carefully and then drops back against the apartment door that she's pushed closed, "Damn," she mutters, "how the hell have I never noticed?"

Cat is studying Kara and Astra herself and finally sees what it is Alex is seeing, "How do you know my niece, Alexandra?"

"Alexandra," Kara says with a snicker.

"Shut up, Kara," Alex says with a glare. "She's my sister," she continues, her answer pointed at Astra. Alex crosses her arms, suddenly very confident in the face off she's about to have with her lover, "I actually came here to ask you questions, not answer them."

Kara falls back to Cat's side when the other woman wraps a hand around the younger Kryptonian's elbow, tugging her back. "Perhaps we should step into the bedroom and continue this conversation."

"I don't think we will," Alex says with a shake of her head. She sighs, "I just want to know why you've been seeing me while you've apparently still been married to someone else."

Astra sighs, drops onto the couch and places her head in her hands, "I'm not still married," she says quietly. "The man in my office yesterday was mistaken, brave one."

Moving forward Alex sits down on the coffee table in front of Astra, "He didn't seem very mistaken to me and you never corrected him."

Kara starts to speak but Cat's hand squeezing her arm stops her, "I didn't correct him because I feared what would happen if I did." She glances at Kara, "There is something you both should know," she says, her eyes meeting first Kara's and then Alex's, "something I should have told you sooner. Just as I should have told you about my being Kryptonian before now."

Moving forward Kara sinks carefully onto the coffee table at Alex's side, reaching out for her sister's hand while Cat slides into the armchair across from the couch, "Tell me now," Alex says simply and Astra nods.

"I was married," Astra says, "to a man of the military guild on Krypton, he was a member of the House of Da. His house was lower than mine but my family betrothed me to him anyway, I was fifteen to his thirty. He was military though as I was being trained to be, it was believed that he would one day make General." She smirks then, "He made Lieutenant but the title of General became mine. He was jealous of my rank and that since my house held more status than his I had chosen to retain my family name." She closes her eyes, "He grew determined that I would bare his child, I was twenty by then. My sister had a beautiful little girl running under foot, I'm not positive even now if I would have minded a child of my own. Even then though I loved my niece, I loved you," she says looking at Kara, "as I would have my own child."

"What happened?" Alex asks when Astra remains quiet too long.

"I learned that I would never bare his child, not through my inability but his. His anger mutated at that, our work with the military had provided us with knowledge that our people were doing more harm than good to our planet, Krypton's core was nearly depleted. If something was not done then we would all perish." She reaches out then, takes Kara's free hand into one of her own in what she hopes is some form of comfort, "I wanted peaceful negotiations, starting with my beloved sister, Alura, and then moving on to the less understanding Judicators. Non saw things another way and blew up several key parts of Argo City, killing many. It was against my orders but Non was my Lieutenant, my responsibility and I had failed."

She looks to Kara, "Your mother never knew the orders were not mine, I never wanted her to. She was the High Judicator of the Council she did what had to be done. Non and I were sent to Fort Rozz for our crimes."

"You didn't commit any crime," Kara said, anger laced in her usually calm voice.

"I did not stop Non, I was as responsible as he." Kara shakes her head but argues no further, "In Fort Rozz I cast Non aside, pulled those around me that I sensed wanted change. He attacked a jailer and lost his life." She looks to Alex then, "I was married once," she says, "to a man I did not love, who did not love me. To a man who lost me my family." A slow smirk spreads across her features, "Now I love someone who has returned someone I thought long lost to me."

She reaches for Alex's hand and the younger woman takes it instantly, "I love you too," she says quietly but she knows Astra hears her, Astra always hears her.

Cat clears her throat from the chair and they all look to her, Astra still holding a hand each of Kara's and Alex's, "If you hurt them," she says, her eyes leveled at Astra, "either of them, they will not find your body."

Astra doesn't point out that she is Kryptonian like Kara, that it's impossible to harm her because she is almost certain that the small woman could find a way. "Understood," she says instead with a nod of her head. It's then before she can blink or speak that Kara launches herself into Astra's arms like she had as a small child. Astra's hand rises to cup the back of Kara's head and she presses her lips to her niece's temple, "I have missed you so, Little One."

"And I've missed you, Aunt Astra," Kara murmurs against the older woman's neck.

Alex smiles at the sight of her sister and lover and wonders how she's going to explain this to her mother. She stands, moving to the chair Cat is in, falling in beside the other woman with a groan, "What's up?"

"I have to tell my mother that I am dating Kara's aunt," she pauses, "and the teacher I've been the TA for the last year."

Cat chuckles, "Sucks to be you, Danvers."


End file.
